Like I said in my last post I have a ton of different ideas on my heart that I want to blog about, but for your sake I'm really trying to stick to one topic without jumping around too much........incase you don't know me well enough the is a VERY HARD challenge for me, but one I must push through if I want to speak & teach, and I really don't think God's giving me much choice in the matter.
So I have a testimony to share.....
The week before last I took a class at the Lane Business Development Center. It was titled "Marketing on a Shoestring". As I walked into the classroom I saw a middle age man with glasses working on the projector, I immediately thought Oh no this guy does not look like he should be teaching this class, he doesn't even look successful himself, how is he going to teach us? Then I realized there was another man in the room who seemed to be preparing some papers and chatting with the man working on the projector. I then thought "Oh Great this man looks like Orville Redenbocker and is probably near his 80's and ready to keel over dead!" I thought what a waste of my time, gas and babysitting.
Then instantly I caught myself. I had only been in the room maybe 3 minutes and had already judged the only other people in the room with me! Here I've been studying the bible, and blogging about not judging others and how its a goal of mine, and God gave me one simple test and I failed miserably. The good thing is I caught it, repented, asked for forgiveness and cleared my mind to "receive" whatever message was going to be delivered to me that hour.
Two funny things happened. One he was doing roll call (oh by the way, the older gentleman was the teacher) and my name wasn't on the list even though I had registered, several others had the same problem. So he handed out a paper for them to fill out with their personal info. on it, but skipped me for some reason???? I didn't really care, I didn't want to fill out the paperwork anyway but thought it was odd that he gave it to everybody but me when I was almost exactly in the "middle" of the room. The second odd thing is he asked a question and started three people on my left, then got to me said "I'm going to skip over you" and asked two people on my right. Now, I was really thinking something was odd.........but that leads to the true testimony.
Before he had even started teaching the class I had this feeling come over me and the only way I can describe it is "Love", I just felt like jumping up giving the man a hug and telling him I love him (this was before he even skipped me). The other word I had on my heart as he was speaking was "Hero" I felt as if I was listening to my hero, and at the end of the class I had determined he really is worthy of being my hero, but I didn't yet know this.
Throughout the whole class there was a picture on the screen of a white haired man, with some words. Now the desks were arranged in a horse shoe setting, so I'm usually a front row girl but in this case I sat in the back so that I could be "facing" the teacher and the screen......however I must be going blind, and I could barely read the text on the screen and I just assumed the picture of the white haired man was him (the teacher). About halfway through the class, after all these feelings have happened and I am now engrossed into what he is saying he turns to the screen and points, says a name, and says "This man is my hero", he then tells of how he learned of the man, his history, how he came to meet him, and why he is his hero.
At that moment I didn't know whether to laugh or cry it was so inspiring, so in my head I do as I always do and I thanked the Lord. I have this thing that i sing a song in my head that goes "Thank you for your favor, Thank you for your favor....." over and over again in prayer to the Lord. I do this when I get the closest parking spot in a busy parking lot, or when I am broke and find $20 in my pocket just what I needed to put gas in my car, things like that. Just before that moment I felt God tell me "You are favored", I've had this in class settings before. When I attended the International Management Academy and there were probably 300 people in the room, I was chosen to go to dinner with the teacher (who I was in awe of as well), I seemed to know that before he chose me, it was like God had already told me "you will be favored". I had the exact same feeling in this class, but nothing unusual happened other than what I've already told you, which to some probably sounds pretty unusual.
At the end of class I waited for the room to clear and I approached the man and thanked him and told him how great I thought he was and that I've traveled across the country and paid thousands to hear people speak and I probably learned more in an hour with him than I ever did at any of those fancy seminars. I told him I had one question (for your sake I won't say or go in to depth about what it was), he looked at me smiled and said "You have my card, I am Free, call me and set up an appointment or we can go to lunch. I will answer your question then."
So now I'm definitely in awe of the whole situation, but mainly excited. I felt like I met a new "Hero" a "mentor" and for me having a mentor that I can actually sit across the table from has been hard for me to find. Then I felt God was just blessing me, so with all those things put together how could you not be excited? I felt as if I was being anointed!
So today is the day I will call and schedule the appointment to meet with him. I needed to get some stuff in order before I did so that I could make the most of our appointment. I will let you know in future blogs how it went. :)
So that is just one testimony for the weekend, but as I already mentioned I'm trying to stay on one topic. :) I will say that it reminded me of my Easter post where I told the story of Joseph and his brothers and how Joseph was "favored by the Lord". Now I definitely don't think I have the Lord's favor in the same way that he had but I also know better than to not "expect" it. I know our God wants to favor us all if we will submit ourselves completely to him, he is showing us that all the time (like when we get the good parking spot, or find the $20 bill in our pocket).
I am reminded of this verse:
"No eye has seen,
No ear has heard,
No mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"
1 Corinthians 2:9
Is this verse not cool or what? I love it. It is confirming what I said that our God wants to favor us, he wants to bless us, but we must step out in faith first. We must recieve his love as the first gift, and from there the possibilities are unimaginable!
Something I heard in class that day, something I was in conversation about yesterday morning, then arrived at church only to hear again (God was making sure I didn't miss this message!!) was about succeeding, and fear of failure. This is not my quote but it was told to me "You fall forward toward success." and "the only time you fail is either when you quit trying, or you have succeeded!" Now these two quotes are ME, anyone who knows me very well knows that they must have been talking about my life or directly to me when these quotes were said. Of course, that was not the case, but God was talking to me. In that moment, I had an "Aha" moment, and I LOVE those. Its like you figured out a puzzle you've been working on forever and you get to advance to the next level. When I say this I'm speaking in context of the things that happen in our life that we can't understand the "why?", and it feels so wonderful when the blinders are lifted because no matter how bad the situation was, when you learn God's reason for "why" it all makes sense! So I was floating on a cloud yesterday. In respect of time I will say my "Aha" moment had to do with a certain set of circumstances in my life, and how they played out, and how they resulted in where I am right now, and WHY I am where I'm at. Which of course then gave me PEACE, knowing that although I'm not where I thought I wanted to be, I'm exactly where God wants me to be and that is the best place to be!!
So I will close with this verse which I found in my bible. When I read it the first time I circled it, and then wrote in the margin "This is ME!!!!" with an arrow pointing to it:
The Narrow and Wide Gates
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Have a good day Everyone, and remember to EXPECT favor in your life today, and give thanks when it happens. It happens to us far more than we realize, and much more than we give thanks for!! God Bless You!
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